I need to learn Dutch. And German. And Spanish. In this way, I wish I was like Neo in the Matrix...I'd love to just download this information and be done with it.
Poop Gin - that sucks!!
DubK - perhaps when I come out next I can teach you a few words of German. We never got around to that on our long drive did we?
About three months. Not too bad, given that the honeymoon period for my last job in Chicago lasted about 45 minutes.
By all measures this is a good firm to work for, and a bad day here is still better than a good day at my last gig. I guess I should be thankful for that.
That said, there's still some issues that seem to be putting me on a fast-track to burnout. I'll write more later when I get home.... I think these walls have ears.
LIG, you archinect on office time? is that allowed? either way, good luck with the review (and motivation).
treekiller, that is what most academics are saying (about local politics ek cetera, i mean). i think is why regional planning is such a big thing in academic circles lately, though i have no confidence it will ever get better. selfishness of the "tragedy of the commons" flavor seems to be built into human nature.
ladies and gentlemen, again WonderK proves why she is a star!! Don't worry I spent may a day in undergrad still drunk from the night before. Even took a few exams that way; and did surprisingly well considering that I had to recall the names/places of slides ala "name this building"
Gin, I am glad you are keeping your perspective of everything. Recently I've soooooooooo thankful that I'm with the development corporation. Despite a few times I was pulling out my non-existent hair and was miles away from the crap I had to deal with previously. Go urban...hopefully archinect will drop a t-shirt like that, failure to I'll have to do a blog shirt with it....a'tekno shirts....hmm sounds good.
Hi tumbles...seems like you aren't even here anymore :( sad!
WonderK, while I was at SC, I walked out of a critique with one of my classmates, went to a bar down the street (which has since been torn down) for two hours, and when we came back all our classmates said that we positively reeked of tequila. The professors didn't mention it. I think they're jaded to that sort of thing by this point really...
vado and I just attended a very fun and informative reception and tour at Delta Faucets, whose Brizo line I have been spec'ing and enjoying lately. It was a fun reception, generous and delicious food, very good wine, and a great tour of the design department and the testing facility. vado is prescient: he predicted almost every new trend coming from Delta soon! vado you should go into trend forecasting!
Also, we got a lovely swag bag with a really nice little leather-bouind notebook and a cheesy jazz CD. I already have a stainless steel coffee cup with a Brizo branded leather cozy around it, so now I'll match!
It's nice to get special treatment and little gifts from companies whose products you actually like!!
i think that cd is by the next steely dan! thanks lb. i did enjoy it except for the mispronunciations of belle epoch and ponte vecchio, which for those of you who may not know are some of the forecasted trends out there.
something is going on in the architecture world this past week, after months of silence, I got solicited three times from my resume on the AIA job board. Seattle, Charlotte, and San Jose. Where have all the architects gone? And we're supposed to be heading into a recession!!!! (anybody looking for work in those places? I'll forward the emails).
wK - is tequila a greenhouse gas?
next week - Chicago, Chicago!
Dear TC- Should I stay north of the loop or in the loop? Should I spend the $120 difference on sleeping or drinking?
(Vado, can you sneak out of work early next wednesday and haul yourself up to the party at the manadanock?)
I would just like to state for the record that the reason I was drunk at school again today - in the middle of the afternoon no less - was for the dedication of the new upper portion of our school. Big event, lots of rich people dressed up mingling with scruffy undergrads trying to figure out if their classes were canceled. It was great fun. I found out that they actually built Watt Hall 30 years ago with the intention of putting a 3rd floor on it (forethought - imagine that!) and lo and behold, they did. The food was good, the wine was better, and the part where I lost my buzz in Structures class just sucked.
Tomorrow I'm going to West Hollywood to see the spectacle that is Halloween in LA. I am told it is like Halloween in the Castro in SF, which I have attended twice, and which was outstanding both times. I'm looking forward to it!
Believe it or not, I am getting work done. Although without a formal design studio this semester, I could see how my graduate experience could consist of a little work to keep me busy in between parties.
Funny, WonderK.... When you say "our school", I still picture DAAP in my mind. I was thinking they decided to add a third floor to Eisenman's contraption just to stop the leaks.
Okay, I posted a very long treatise about my work situation in my blog. Feel free to mock and ridicule as required.
no mocking or ridiculing lig. you have kinda complicated situation and similarly complicated feelings about your workplace.
where you are sitting sounds shitty. your dream job sounds rare, but hope you find it someday. maybe you can make it yourself after you get through grad school. somehow i suspect that academia would be more happy environment for you than a corporate office though, at least from your description.
Yeah, academia certainly has a strong appeal. During the Columbia summer program, the workload was incredibly intense, and all the heavy theory being tossed around gave me headaches, but at least it was challenging and fun. Corporate practice, by comparison, seems sort of "bleh" by comparison. (It's nice to see stuff actually get built, though, and getting a paycheck is a good thing.)
Funny thing is, back when I was at UIC, I couldn't wait to get out of school and start working full-time. "The grass is always greener...."
Ideally I'd like to stay active in both worlds... It's a shame there seems to be such a huge wall between academia and professional practice.
it's been one of those days of dealing with project management issues. I've had a dozen emails back-n-forth with a satellite image vendor about a $6k order our client wants for a 18km x 20km swath. it would be cheaper to send me to vietnam, rent a helicopter and take the photos myself, but that would take much longer and the weather may not cooperate.
LIG- find another desk and start squatting. also try to re arrange the desk so you don't have your back to the flow of peeps. good luck and hang in there. we all have had spaces just as bad...
vado - who says you need to be paid? get your charlie up to chicago!
"... It's a shame there seems to be such a huge wall between academia and professional practice."
is this really true? seems to not really be the case at least
here in nyc? ltl, shop, narchitects, lyn rice, etc. etc. all teach
and practice...but maybe that's just here. or maybe you just
have to be a starchitect first.
i do seem to remember though that most of my college profs
had projects on the side.
tk, if you're thinking about that heart 'o chicago motel, my parents stayed there 2 months ago, so i know it inside and out. feel free to email me if you want more specific comments. Generally I would suggest going with the cheaper room, because given the convention and the meet & greets, you will likely only be stumbling back to the hotel to crash for 7 hour stretches and will be otherwise out and about. In that case you'll feel happier and be able to enjoy your time more if you don't feel like your dropping loads on unused luxuries.
But then again, if mrs tk is coming along, I'm not sure I'd recommend the heart 'o chicago. But there are other options. Anyway feel free to email if you like.
omg, LiG, get yourself out of that terrible desk pronto! If it's only temporary--then tell them, great, you'd be happy to move it to another temporary location, but it is severely affecting your productivity where it is right now. Then look 'em in the eye and wait for them to propose a solution. If you're ALREADY in a hallway, then at the very least they can find another hallway to put you in where you won't be next to the copier/printer! YIKES.
and half asleep...dunno the last couple days I've felt like a complete after work. And its feeling like daylight savings time...bah. Worse spoke with the doctor hoping he'd co-sign my "no infectious disease" certificate and he says he wants me to redo the tests. I'm still bruised from the all the tests I did January to May...wtf! Sigh
btw I'm not afraid of needles et al but not keen on getting more puncture wounds, also the certificate is for a local passport whilst I wait for my other one to arrive. It sucks having to replace those things we at times forget about.
lars, it's not that the same people aren't involved in both, but that their behaviour and the structure of each changes so much from one to the other
i think that i would tend to disagree with that... i think that may have been the case in the past (thinking about eisenman for example) but not so much anymore in the case of the type of people that lars listed...
for example, this past weekend i was at the aia florida emerging professionals conference in sarasota... the keynote speakers were the guys from PLY Architecture... both of them teach at Michigan and it seems that teaching is an integral part of their practice... stay tuned for more on this as i am writing some summaries of the presentations from PLY, Plexus R+D, and Ball+Nogues... i also channelled my best orhan and interviewed the guys from PLY... once i finish transcribing and editing i'll post a link...
The big problem with the desk situation is that the firm has outgrown our space; there's literally nowhere else for me to go. Supposedly we have a carpenter coming in this weekend to build two new workstations, but he doesn't seem to be one to keep his commitments. I'll mention in my review tomorrow that I'm very unhappy with my current setup, but I'm not sure what they can do about it until they get these extra workstations built.
About the whole academics vs. practice thing, I guess the divide seems most prominent in the types of firms I seem to end up working for... Looking back, I can't think of a single firm I've worked for where the owner or partners spent a huge amount of time teaching. I think some people at Perkins + Will and my current firm may have had part-time visiting faculty positions here and there, but that was pretty rare.
the architects who teach seem to take a lot of talent from their schools. i think cuz they are a known quantity.
makes it harder for folks in more traditional stream to get foot in door...maybe yu should hurry up and get back to school so you can start shmoozing...
phil, I mean that oftentimes students are given more autonomy, more control over their work and their schedules, than employees are. Which seems a little bit backwards, since the employees have theoretically proven themselves to be good and trustworthy, or one wouldn't have hired them, no?
techno, I feel ya on the needles. Though I get 14g needles shoved through bits of me by choice, I am still freaked out by doctors needles. I think that is because they wield them so carelessly. When I'm pierced it's right the first time, every time, but when a doctor comes at me with a needle I can expect it to take a few tries.
i personally have worked for two people that have taught while
practicing. i have also worked at firms where teaching wasn't
happening at all...the more traditional large firms (add inc,
payette in boston for instance)..where making money and ties
to the aia seemed to be more important. i do really feel that the
line between academia and practice can/has been blurred more
than in the past...especially in new york.
my arguments may be very new york based though...since i also
don't think these same firms really do hire from their students...
where i work, for instance, doesn't have any of his former students...
and i think that shop and ltl have large enough practices where
they require more experienced help than is available from people
that are just graduating.
in boston it did seem as though smaller firms like kennedy/violich
and office da did hire from their student populations..but i also
think it depends on the size of the jobs, firm, potential budgets
etc. obviously the less money the more likely you're going to
hire young.
When starting a thread to "parametrically" compare two technologically advanced drawing/creative programs, couldn't one use those advanced systems to run a spelling check before misspelling "strengths"?!?
Ack!! I know this is a old woman rant but I am so disillusioned about our society being able to move forward when people can't even take the most basic level of care when addressing themselves to others! Granted, I misspell quite often here when I do a quick post, but when I start a thread I take great care not to do so, because it annoys the f*ck out of me to see misspelled words in the thread titles!! And then to sling attitude at others on top of it...
<rant over>
Speaking of computer programs, I just signed up for a seminar on "BIM: Best Practices and Benefits" because I have no idea really what it is and though I can't see how it would benefit my firm (which could run entirely on hand drafting if need be, and relies heavily on it even now) I feel obligated to make an informed decision should the question ever come up.
i'm sold on bim (revit, anyway) though, the way things are going, i'll always only be the old guy watching over others' shoulder. i've done the tutorials and may get to take some training some time, but for now don't even get revit on my computer. i try to open any file these days and get the 'drawing file not valid' message because i'm still in '05.
i'm working on at least one project right now, though, that i think would have been MUCH more difficult for us to do with a staff of our size if we did not have revit. i wouldn't have even considered it, really.
I'm a bit anxious to learn BIM myself, although I'm leaning towards ArchiCAD rather than Revit. Each application seems to have its own loyal camp, but the fact that Revit is an Autodesk product makes it immediately suspect in my book.
At my old firm in Chicago, our local Autodesk reseller was doing a constant hard-sell sales pitch for Revit (even going so far as to charge us $200 extra per license for AutoCAD without Revit bundled to it). Most of the "testimonials" came from people who were already on the Autodesk payroll, and they kept breathlessly exclaiming how Revit would revolutionize the way our firm works. Excuse me, shouldn't our software be designed to accommodate the way we work, rather than us having to change our entire project delivery method to suit the whims of a software company? The whole thing had the feel of a Scientology sales pitch, and seemed like yet another example of Autodesk using its monopoly position to bully its customers into spending thousands for their latest bug-ridden product. It put a very sour taste in my mouth, and pretty much turned me off Autodesk products in general.
I don't have much control over what we use here in my current office (I'm still an AutoCAD monkey here), but for my own personal and educational use, I'm making a concerted effort to divorce myself from anything having to do with Microsoft or Autodesk. Based on the research I've done so far, ArchiCAD on a Mac seems to be the best way forward for me.
[ color = _____ ] [/ color] primaries work best, chartreuse doesn't.
for residential work, I can't comprehend how BIM will help you create better documentation. It's not like your drawing sets are 999 pages full of reference bubbles. BIM is like a monster truck, when all you really need is golf cart.
Agreed... I think there will always be a need for basic 2D drafting. I'm also concerned about how BIM would work for renovation projects, which are usually the bulk of my work. Do I have to create a BIM model of the entire existing building before I even get to the point of deciding which walls are to be removed, and which doors are to be relocated? How does BIM know the difference between existing construction and new construction, and how does it make those differences apparent in the construction documents? Almost all the BIM case studies I've seen so far have been for large-scale ground-up construction, which is a very small minority of the work I actually do.
Didn't mean to sound snippy 'bout learning BIM, but it really doesn't seem to fit what I know of LB's practice. BIM won't help make better custom cabinetry details or more poetic spaces, or provide better client interaction.
I'm starting to get interested in learning GIS which is to landscape/planning what BIM is to architecture.
I started learning revit at the last job - it has its limits and strengths. BIM is great for organizing lots of drawing sheets, but sucks for drawing details, good for locating detail bubbles and keeping schedules up to date.
rationalist, could you please email me the doctors you have been to that require "a few tries" to hit you in the right place with needles. I have never had a doctor require a few tries on me! Needles don't really bother me but I am still solidly in the camp of people who doesn't feel the need to experience them unless I need to be vaccinated.
Regarding BIM, it's very important for the future of all design practices.....because going forward, I think it's important that designers learn to integrate energy modeling and efficiency into their designs, which means BIM. I know it's scary, and I know many aren't used to it, but if architects don't begin to embrace energy modeling programs in response to growing environmental concerns, then we are going to render ourselves irrelevant. And I'm not just saying that because I'm studying it.....I really believe that you can't profess to have a progressive design practice unless you take issues like this into account.
LIG- yes, you'd need to model the entire existing structure before you could start designing. The cool part of BIM or other parametric drafting is that you aren't assigning layers to stuff you draw, but actual materials/assemblies. So you could make an 'existing curtainwall' assembly and a 'new curtainwall' assembly. Even in cad, you need the as-builts/survey documents. BIM does ground-up new large scale construction well - that's what it was developed for. everything else is having an elephant ride a bicycle.
nice weather today, if not a little cold and breezy
just don't use the color codes in titles of new threads - paul doesn't like it.
it's always interesting w/ these BIM v. CAD discussions. Kind of like CAD v. hand draughting (back in the old days?). (revit) is working really well in the residential/remodel relm, i will never have to draft up a window/door schedule and change it 300 times ever again. (BIM knows existing, new, etc. through phases i.e. time) i'm not sure that "BIM won't help make better custom cabinetry details or more poetic spaces, or provide better client interaction." is the software's charge (i've seen more than my share of crappy buildings drawn by pencil, cad, and bim...) However, i have personally witnessed better client interaction, because the client can see the three dimensional representation of what you are attempting to describe...
Thread Central
puddles are you dutch?
I need to learn Dutch. And German. And Spanish. In this way, I wish I was like Neo in the Matrix...I'd love to just download this information and be done with it.
I just want this week to be over. Right now.
I think the customary honeymoon period with my new job has officially come to an end.
Poop Gin - that sucks!!
DubK - perhaps when I come out next I can teach you a few words of German. We never got around to that on our long drive did we?
Don't sweat the small stuff, LIG. Life is entirely too short :o)
About three months. Not too bad, given that the honeymoon period for my last job in Chicago lasted about 45 minutes.
By all measures this is a good firm to work for, and a bad day here is still better than a good day at my last gig. I guess I should be thankful for that.
That said, there's still some issues that seem to be putting me on a fast-track to burnout. I'll write more later when I get home.... I think these walls have ears.
LIG, you archinect on office time? is that allowed? either way, good luck with the review (and motivation).
treekiller, that is what most academics are saying (about local politics ek cetera, i mean). i think is why regional planning is such a big thing in academic circles lately, though i have no confidence it will ever get better. selfishness of the "tragedy of the commons" flavor seems to be built into human nature.
Oh man. I'm drunk again. And I'm in class!!! Oh jeez.
ladies and gentlemen, again WonderK proves why she is a star!! Don't worry I spent may a day in undergrad still drunk from the night before. Even took a few exams that way; and did surprisingly well considering that I had to recall the names/places of slides ala "name this building"
Gin, I am glad you are keeping your perspective of everything. Recently I've soooooooooo thankful that I'm with the development corporation. Despite a few times I was pulling out my non-existent hair and was miles away from the crap I had to deal with previously. Go urban...hopefully archinect will drop a t-shirt like that, failure to I'll have to do a blog shirt with it....a'tekno shirts....hmm sounds good.
Hi tumbles...seems like you aren't even here anymore :( sad!
WonderK, while I was at SC, I walked out of a critique with one of my classmates, went to a bar down the street (which has since been torn down) for two hours, and when we came back all our classmates said that we positively reeked of tequila. The professors didn't mention it. I think they're jaded to that sort of thing by this point really...
rationalist you didn't invite any of the professors...that is kind of rude isn't it?
well the whole point was that we were pissed off at the professors, and needed to escape from them!
oh, looking back maybe it wasn't clear... this wasn't at the end of the crit, it was in the middle.
ahhh more than understandable then. Alcohol is a funny substance it can either fuel anger igniting it or wash it away completely. Hmmm boooze!
vado and I just attended a very fun and informative reception and tour at Delta Faucets, whose Brizo line I have been spec'ing and enjoying lately. It was a fun reception, generous and delicious food, very good wine, and a great tour of the design department and the testing facility. vado is prescient: he predicted almost every new trend coming from Delta soon! vado you should go into trend forecasting!
Also, we got a lovely swag bag with a really nice little leather-bouind notebook and a cheesy jazz CD. I already have a stainless steel coffee cup with a Brizo branded leather cozy around it, so now I'll match!
It's nice to get special treatment and little gifts from companies whose products you actually like!!
i think that cd is by the next steely dan! thanks lb. i did enjoy it except for the mispronunciations of belle epoch and ponte vecchio, which for those of you who may not know are some of the forecasted trends out there.
something is going on in the architecture world this past week, after months of silence, I got solicited three times from my resume on the AIA job board. Seattle, Charlotte, and San Jose. Where have all the architects gone? And we're supposed to be heading into a recession!!!! (anybody looking for work in those places? I'll forward the emails).
wK - is tequila a greenhouse gas?
next week - Chicago, Chicago!
Dear TC- Should I stay north of the loop or in the loop? Should I spend the $120 difference on sleeping or drinking?
(Vado, can you sneak out of work early next wednesday and haul yourself up to the party at the manadanock?)
sorry charlie, i've no pto left to use cept for my vacation to brittainia.
I would just like to state for the record that the reason I was drunk at school again today - in the middle of the afternoon no less - was for the dedication of the new upper portion of our school. Big event, lots of rich people dressed up mingling with scruffy undergrads trying to figure out if their classes were canceled. It was great fun. I found out that they actually built Watt Hall 30 years ago with the intention of putting a 3rd floor on it (forethought - imagine that!) and lo and behold, they did. The food was good, the wine was better, and the part where I lost my buzz in Structures class just sucked.
Tomorrow I'm going to West Hollywood to see the spectacle that is Halloween in LA. I am told it is like Halloween in the Castro in SF, which I have attended twice, and which was outstanding both times. I'm looking forward to it!
Believe it or not, I am getting work done. Although without a formal design studio this semester, I could see how my graduate experience could consist of a little work to keep me busy in between parties.
Funny, WonderK.... When you say "our school", I still picture DAAP in my mind. I was thinking they decided to add a third floor to Eisenman's contraption just to stop the leaks.
Okay, I posted a very long treatise about my work situation in my blog. Feel free to mock and ridicule as required.
no mocking or ridiculing lig. you have kinda complicated situation and similarly complicated feelings about your workplace.
where you are sitting sounds shitty. your dream job sounds rare, but hope you find it someday. maybe you can make it yourself after you get through grad school. somehow i suspect that academia would be more happy environment for you than a corporate office though, at least from your description.
Yeah, academia certainly has a strong appeal. During the Columbia summer program, the workload was incredibly intense, and all the heavy theory being tossed around gave me headaches, but at least it was challenging and fun. Corporate practice, by comparison, seems sort of "bleh" by comparison. (It's nice to see stuff actually get built, though, and getting a paycheck is a good thing.)
Funny thing is, back when I was at UIC, I couldn't wait to get out of school and start working full-time. "The grass is always greener...."
Ideally I'd like to stay active in both worlds... It's a shame there seems to be such a huge wall between academia and professional practice.
it's been one of those days of dealing with project management issues. I've had a dozen emails back-n-forth with a satellite image vendor about a $6k order our client wants for a 18km x 20km swath. it would be cheaper to send me to vietnam, rent a helicopter and take the photos myself, but that would take much longer and the weather may not cooperate.
LIG- find another desk and start squatting. also try to re arrange the desk so you don't have your back to the flow of peeps. good luck and hang in there. we all have had spaces just as bad...
vado - who says you need to be paid? get your charlie up to chicago!
"... It's a shame there seems to be such a huge wall between academia and professional practice."
is this really true? seems to not really be the case at least
here in nyc? ltl, shop, narchitects, lyn rice, etc. etc. all teach
and practice...but maybe that's just here. or maybe you just
have to be a starchitect first.
i do seem to remember though that most of my college profs
had projects on the side.
lars, it's not that the same people aren't involved in both, but that their behaviour and the structure of each changes so much from one to the other.
tk, if you're thinking about that heart 'o chicago motel, my parents stayed there 2 months ago, so i know it inside and out. feel free to email me if you want more specific comments. Generally I would suggest going with the cheaper room, because given the convention and the meet & greets, you will likely only be stumbling back to the hotel to crash for 7 hour stretches and will be otherwise out and about. In that case you'll feel happier and be able to enjoy your time more if you don't feel like your dropping loads on unused luxuries.
But then again, if mrs tk is coming along, I'm not sure I'd recommend the heart 'o chicago. But there are other options. Anyway feel free to email if you like.
omg, LiG, get yourself out of that terrible desk pronto! If it's only temporary--then tell them, great, you'd be happy to move it to another temporary location, but it is severely affecting your productivity where it is right now. Then look 'em in the eye and wait for them to propose a solution. If you're ALREADY in a hallway, then at the very least they can find another hallway to put you in where you won't be next to the copier/printer! YIKES.
I'm here TC
and half asleep...dunno the last couple days I've felt like a complete after work. And its feeling like daylight savings time...bah. Worse spoke with the doctor hoping he'd co-sign my "no infectious disease" certificate and he says he wants me to redo the tests. I'm still bruised from the all the tests I did January to May...wtf! Sigh
Anyhow...
btw I'm not afraid of needles et al but not keen on getting more puncture wounds, also the certificate is for a local passport whilst I wait for my other one to arrive. It sucks having to replace those things we at times forget about.
i think that i would tend to disagree with that... i think that may have been the case in the past (thinking about eisenman for example) but not so much anymore in the case of the type of people that lars listed...
for example, this past weekend i was at the aia florida emerging professionals conference in sarasota... the keynote speakers were the guys from PLY Architecture... both of them teach at Michigan and it seems that teaching is an integral part of their practice... stay tuned for more on this as i am writing some summaries of the presentations from PLY, Plexus R+D, and Ball+Nogues... i also channelled my best orhan and interviewed the guys from PLY... once i finish transcribing and editing i'll post a link...
The big problem with the desk situation is that the firm has outgrown our space; there's literally nowhere else for me to go. Supposedly we have a carpenter coming in this weekend to build two new workstations, but he doesn't seem to be one to keep his commitments. I'll mention in my review tomorrow that I'm very unhappy with my current setup, but I'm not sure what they can do about it until they get these extra workstations built.
About the whole academics vs. practice thing, I guess the divide seems most prominent in the types of firms I seem to end up working for... Looking back, I can't think of a single firm I've worked for where the owner or partners spent a huge amount of time teaching. I think some people at Perkins + Will and my current firm may have had part-time visiting faculty positions here and there, but that was pretty rare.
the architects who teach seem to take a lot of talent from their schools. i think cuz they are a known quantity.
makes it harder for folks in more traditional stream to get foot in door...maybe yu should hurry up and get back to school so you can start shmoozing...
phil, I mean that oftentimes students are given more autonomy, more control over their work and their schedules, than employees are. Which seems a little bit backwards, since the employees have theoretically proven themselves to be good and trustworthy, or one wouldn't have hired them, no?
techno, I feel ya on the needles. Though I get 14g needles shoved through bits of me by choice, I am still freaked out by doctors needles. I think that is because they wield them so carelessly. When I'm pierced it's right the first time, every time, but when a doctor comes at me with a needle I can expect it to take a few tries.
i personally have worked for two people that have taught while
practicing. i have also worked at firms where teaching wasn't
happening at all...the more traditional large firms (add inc,
payette in boston for instance)..where making money and ties
to the aia seemed to be more important. i do really feel that the
line between academia and practice can/has been blurred more
than in the past...especially in new york.
my arguments may be very new york based though...since i also
don't think these same firms really do hire from their students...
where i work, for instance, doesn't have any of his former students...
and i think that shop and ltl have large enough practices where
they require more experienced help than is available from people
that are just graduating.
in boston it did seem as though smaller firms like kennedy/violich
and office da did hire from their student populations..but i also
think it depends on the size of the jobs, firm, potential budgets
etc. obviously the less money the more likely you're going to
hire young.
<rant>
When starting a thread to "parametrically" compare two technologically advanced drawing/creative programs, couldn't one use those advanced systems to run a spelling check before misspelling "strengths"?!?
Ack!! I know this is a old woman rant but I am so disillusioned about our society being able to move forward when people can't even take the most basic level of care when addressing themselves to others! Granted, I misspell quite often here when I do a quick post, but when I start a thread I take great care not to do so, because it annoys the f*ck out of me to see misspelled words in the thread titles!! And then to sling attitude at others on top of it...
<rant over>
Speaking of computer programs, I just signed up for a seminar on "BIM: Best Practices and Benefits" because I have no idea really what it is and though I can't see how it would benefit my firm (which could run entirely on hand drafting if need be, and relies heavily on it even now) I feel obligated to make an informed decision should the question ever come up.
after you've taken it email me your thouhgts on the strenghts and weeknesses pleez/
i'm sold on bim (revit, anyway) though, the way things are going, i'll always only be the old guy watching over others' shoulder. i've done the tutorials and may get to take some training some time, but for now don't even get revit on my computer. i try to open any file these days and get the 'drawing file not valid' message because i'm still in '05.
i'm working on at least one project right now, though, that i think would have been MUCH more difficult for us to do with a staff of our size if we did not have revit. i wouldn't have even considered it, really.
I'm feeling bold today. But can someone (one of you youngsters) remind me how to make the text colored? Because I'm also feeling a bit old today!
I'm a bit anxious to learn BIM myself, although I'm leaning towards ArchiCAD rather than Revit. Each application seems to have its own loyal camp, but the fact that Revit is an Autodesk product makes it immediately suspect in my book.
At my old firm in Chicago, our local Autodesk reseller was doing a constant hard-sell sales pitch for Revit (even going so far as to charge us $200 extra per license for AutoCAD without Revit bundled to it). Most of the "testimonials" came from people who were already on the Autodesk payroll, and they kept breathlessly exclaiming how Revit would revolutionize the way our firm works. Excuse me, shouldn't our software be designed to accommodate the way we work, rather than us having to change our entire project delivery method to suit the whims of a software company? The whole thing had the feel of a Scientology sales pitch, and seemed like yet another example of Autodesk using its monopoly position to bully its customers into spending thousands for their latest bug-ridden product. It put a very sour taste in my mouth, and pretty much turned me off Autodesk products in general.
I don't have much control over what we use here in my current office (I'm still an AutoCAD monkey here), but for my own personal and educational use, I'm making a concerted effort to divorce myself from anything having to do with Microsoft or Autodesk. Based on the research I've done so far, ArchiCAD on a Mac seems to be the best way forward for me.
[ color = _____ ] [/ color] primaries work best, chartreuse doesn't.
for residential work, I can't comprehend how BIM will help you create better documentation. It's not like your drawing sets are 999 pages full of reference bubbles. BIM is like a monster truck, when all you really need is golf cart.
(pleasework pleasework pleasework...)
Yahoo!
Agreed... I think there will always be a need for basic 2D drafting. I'm also concerned about how BIM would work for renovation projects, which are usually the bulk of my work. Do I have to create a BIM model of the entire existing building before I even get to the point of deciding which walls are to be removed, and which doors are to be relocated? How does BIM know the difference between existing construction and new construction, and how does it make those differences apparent in the construction documents? Almost all the BIM case studies I've seen so far have been for large-scale ground-up construction, which is a very small minority of the work I actually do.
Didn't mean to sound snippy 'bout learning BIM, but it really doesn't seem to fit what I know of LB's practice. BIM won't help make better custom cabinetry details or more poetic spaces, or provide better client interaction.
I'm starting to get interested in learning GIS which is to landscape/planning what BIM is to architecture.
I started learning revit at the last job - it has its limits and strengths. BIM is great for organizing lots of drawing sheets, but sucks for drawing details, good for locating detail bubbles and keeping schedules up to date.
rationalist, could you please email me the doctors you have been to that require "a few tries" to hit you in the right place with needles. I have never had a doctor require a few tries on me! Needles don't really bother me but I am still solidly in the camp of people who doesn't feel the need to experience them unless I need to be vaccinated.
Regarding BIM, it's very important for the future of all design practices.....because going forward, I think it's important that designers learn to integrate energy modeling and efficiency into their designs, which means BIM. I know it's scary, and I know many aren't used to it, but if architects don't begin to embrace energy modeling programs in response to growing environmental concerns, then we are going to render ourselves irrelevant. And I'm not just saying that because I'm studying it.....I really believe that you can't profess to have a progressive design practice unless you take issues like this into account.
LIG- yes, you'd need to model the entire existing structure before you could start designing. The cool part of BIM or other parametric drafting is that you aren't assigning layers to stuff you draw, but actual materials/assemblies. So you could make an 'existing curtainwall' assembly and a 'new curtainwall' assembly. Even in cad, you need the as-builts/survey documents. BIM does ground-up new large scale construction well - that's what it was developed for. everything else is having an elephant ride a bicycle.
nice weather today, if not a little cold and breezy
just don't use the color codes in titles of new threads - paul doesn't like it.
liberty bell: I have bookmarked this thread because if you scroll down a bit medit gives the secret instructions re: colour, sizings etc.
http://www.archinect.com/forum/threads.php?id=31642_0_42_0_C
it's always interesting w/ these BIM v. CAD discussions. Kind of like CAD v. hand draughting (back in the old days?). (revit) is working really well in the residential/remodel relm, i will never have to draft up a window/door schedule and change it 300 times ever again. (BIM knows existing, new, etc. through phases i.e. time) i'm not sure that "BIM won't help make better custom cabinetry details or more poetic spaces, or provide better client interaction." is the software's charge (i've seen more than my share of crappy buildings drawn by pencil, cad, and bim...) However, i have personally witnessed better client interaction, because the client can see the three dimensional representation of what you are attempting to describe...
[ color = grey]I am sure I'll be the dolt to get this wrong[/ color]
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